Monday was MLK day so we had it off work. We took the opportunity to go for a bike ride and rode to the Slaughter Pen trails. We rode about half of American Heros and turned around to come back. We finished with 10.73 miles to help get us back into riding after a long break. We also signed the sales contract for the house and finalized the finance contract. Things are moving forward!
Tuesday after work we drove by the house to check rush hour traffic levels, there wasn't any traffic. What a change from our last house where it could take an hour to travel a few miles on a 4 lane road with 7 lane intersections! We also took the puppies for a walk on the part of the trail that goes by the house. We found the trail to be hard packed, seemingly fast and definitely rideable for us. The puppies enjoyed walking in the woods like real dogs. When we got home, we cooked a bunch of food for dinner to last the next couple of days.
Wednesday was inauguration day when we welcomed not only the 46th president but also the first woman vice president. After work we drove by the house to explore the surrounding area and see how far away necessities are. We also watched some videos at home that show the trails near the house to get a better idea of what they are like, pieces we'd like to ride first and where we might need to build up our skills before riding.
We explored the area a little more. Amazingly, we found the exact spot on the Back 40 trail where we rode Thanksgiving weekend 2019 and met up with a local who rescued us from having to ride the last 4 miles in the dark. It was our first real experience with the Bella Vista area and just one of the reasons why we'd like to move here. This is a mountain biking mecca and we want to be in the middle of it!
Saturday started with pancakes for breakfast then another bike ride. This time we drove to Lake Avalon and met some locals who agreed to let us tag along on their favorite loop inside the Little Sugar trail system, Lago Vista to Tunnel Vision. We were supposed to get to Bamboozled which is the trail that the house backs up to but, we got confused by them saying that they were going to break off and we took a wrong turn. We ended up going the wrong way on Tunnel Vision instead of heading to Bamboozled and after a few miles we looked at trail forks to see that we were riding in the opposite direction we wanted to be going. We turned around and headed back towards the car. The trails were fun but challenging with all the climbing. Eventually be baled out for the road and rode 3 miles back to the car. We finished that ride with 9 more miles on our Trek bikes in 40° weather.
On Sunday we moved from site 25 to 3 due to some loud neighbors that were distracting during the work week. Dom decided that he wanted to back the RV all the way there. He did it and it went far more smoothly than either of us expected. He is very good at backing up the RV! We also talked to the realtor to pick out mirrors for the bathrooms. It was another cold day so we took it easy as we acclimated back to being in the cold.
Two rides in one week, we are getting back to where we want to be, riding several times a week is our goal. It was another exciting week and we are happy to be in an area where it is so easy to go biking. See you next week!